Psychosocial Support Programme
Our Psychosocial Support Programme is designed to help children and their families maintain a good physical and mental health and provide them with important coping mechanisms to deal with difficult situations.
Psychosocial support addresses a person’s emotional, social, mental and spiritual needs (psychological needs). Head of Psychosocial Support, Serah and GEF Counsellor, Janet visit children regularly at home and at school and their parents at home to deliver one to one and group counselling sessions. We are incredibly grateful to both of them for their valuable input.
Seminars have played an important role in supporting and guiding children and their families through life's challenges since the early days of GEF. Taking place in either Iten, Karatina or Lokichar, they can cover a wide range of topics such as personal development, gender based violence, parenting skills, stress and anger management, conflict resolution, entrepreneurship, drug misuse, life skills, reproductive health, career and academic guidance and mental health awareness. We have hosted 40 seminars since 2014 which have welcomed 2,406 children and parents.
Finding funds to deliver seminars is one of our biggest challenges as a charity. Costs range from £300 to £7,000 depending on the number of children/parents in attendance, location and number of days. Please get in touch if you are interested in finding out more or making a donation to make a seminar possible.
In the near future we aim to start and develop a Community Resource Centre in Iten, Kenya. The town is renowned for producing multiple World and Olympic champions and record holders in athletics. The wealth gained by many of these athletes through their success makes it incredibly appealing for young people to try to become a runner.
Whilst there are many positives to come from the athletic success, there also some negative impacts. With the big focus on running, other talents can be overlooked which results in idleness, frustration, confusion, low self confidence amongst youths and sometimes sees them indulge in negative behaviours. Some of the challenges we have encountered when working with children and families in Iten since 2014 are teenage pregnancies, high rate of school drop outs, drug abuse, mental health illnesses, crime and violence.
We believe that a Community Resource Centre can be part of the solution to tackling the above problems. We want it to be a place where young people can develop their talents, keep themselves busy, have access to books and computers, study, be entertained during leisure time, receive counselling, share ideas and talk about challenges/solutions, develop skills such as IT and acting in talent shows, keep themselves up to date with current affairs and be trained in bracelet making which can provide them with a source of income.
To date we have raised £4,210, which was initially earmarked for The Mel Edwards Community Library, but we took the decision to develop the plans so that the facility can play an even bigger role in tackling some of the challenges children and their families are facing. The new Community Resource Centre will have The Mel Edwards Library within it and we look forward to updating this page as plans progress.
